Ashmolean House reel

Anybody have any info on the title of this tune?

Hi Brad. Kevin Crawford and James Cullinan play this on “In Good Company,” track 17. The liner notes say it was composed by Belfast (originally from Derrylin, County Fermanagh) fiddler Tommy Gunn. He was one of the founders of the band Boys of the Lough. But that’s all I know. Don’t suppose that gets you any closer to knowing much about the title….

There is an Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, not that that explains anything, but it’s such a strange name, there may well be a link. I can, however, supply a little piece of Tommy Gunn-related trivia for all you trad music / movie fans. Look in the end credits on Irish or Irish-themed movies for the dialogue coach Brendan Gunn. He is a son of Tommy, and a very good fiddler himself. Brendan it was who supplied Brad Pitt with his almost impenetrable traveller’s accent in the film “Snatch”.

“Snatch”…now THAT’s a good movie.

Jerry O’Sullivan recorded it on his first solo effort, “The Invasion” as the second half of a pair of reels that starts with “The Chorus Reel”, an abbreviated and slightly modified version of “The Glen Road to Carrick”. He’s backed by Seamus Egan on tenor banjo and they play pretty much note for note and ornament for ornament. It’s a real technical display and an interesting contrast in timbres - the pipes with their sustain, the banjo with its nearly instant decay.

The flute/pipes version can’t get down to the low As and Bs, but other instruments can, and it sounds nice:

|:B|AF~F2 EDB,A,|D2 (3FED FA~A2|defd e2dB|AFDE FEEB|
AF~F2 EDB,A,|D2 (3FED FAAB|ABde dBAF|A,CEG FDD:|
|:A|defg ~a3b|afdf eBBA|defg ~a3b|afdf e3g|
fd~d2 Ad~d2|ed (3Bcd effe|dBAF A2AF|A,CEG FDD:|

Maybe |A,B,DE FDD2| is better as an ending since it’s hexatonic no C#s for the rest of the tune.

Crawford says he learned this tune from Willie Kelly, who is about 30 mins from me and hosted the last session I went to. I thought that was a cool tidbit of info, it is like 6 degrees of Kevin Crawford.

X: 1
T:
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
Q:1/4=120
K:D
V:1
|:AF F2 ED BA|D2 EDFAAA|d2 fd ef dB|AF DE FE E2|
AF F2 ED BA|D2 EDFAAB|A Bd ed BAG|A2 EG FD D2:|
|:de fg aa2b|af df eB BB|de fg a2 ab|af df e4|
fd dd Ad dd|ed (3Bcd egfe|dB AG AA AG|AG EG F2 D2:|

I have checked my copy of In Good Company, and Kevin’s sleeve notes say that Ashmolean House was composed by a Seattle based fiddler called Richard Twomey. Tom Gunn is not mentioned here.

Quite similar to this tune https://thesession.org/tunes/4384 .
It also has echoes of Mullingar Races.